"She was tough as nails and her language was very colorful," said Barbara Thompson, chairwoman of family medicine at UTMB, who was Abston's family doctor.

"She was the kind of doctor who never gave up on patients. I remember when I was a student (at UTMB), how she worked at the hospital day and night," Thompson said.

For 17 years, while teaching at UTMB and directing the Blocker Burn Unit there, Abston also treated children at Shriners Burns Hospital in Galveston. She also helped develop compression garments that improved the appearance of burn scars.

From 1975 to 1981, Abston supervised emergency room operations at UTMB, including Life Flight services. She returned to that job temporarily in 1996 after allegations of mismanagement in the operation.

A native of Refugio, in South Texas, Abston was born on May 29, 1934, the daughter of Charles Richard Abston and Susie Abston.

She announced when she was 4 that she was going to be a physician, said her longtime companion, Joanne Mallett. Abston's choice of general surgery as a specialty was unusual for a woman, Thompson said.

In 1962, she earned a medical degree from UTMB, where she interned and completed a residency in general surgery.

Among her honors were the Ashbel Smith Distinguished Alumni Award and the Dean of Medicine's Teacher of the Year Award. After retiring in 2003, Abston earned an associate's degree in substance abuse counseling from Galveston College, but never worked as a counselor, Mallett said.

Abston and Mallett also were foster parents for about 25 children assigned to them over the years by Child Protective Services, Mallett said.